When time flies

We slept in late on Sunday morning – apparently the barbeque yesterday was a tasty and left a lasting impression — and packed our gear to go snorkeling for maybe the last time. There is a storm announced for tomorrow on Monday and that is not compatible with snorkeling and searching for plastic waste. This time we mainly explored to the other side of the bay and encountered octopuses, squids, rays, anemones and hundreds of fish. Amazing wildlife and a some welcomed eye-bleach after focusing on pollution throughout the entire week so far. The pupils Siham, Karl, Meike and Sheyda, analyzed our data we collected during the week and were supposed to back it up/complement it with data from the internet, but the institute’s router had different plans: it went offline for hours. Less than ideal, since the pupils really depend on it. Aaargh. The pupils found a solution and set up an excess point through their phones. Thanks to the EU, no more roaming costs :-). But back to business: we found a total of about six kilos of plastic, 10% of which were found on terrestrial ground and the remaining 90 percent were found on beaches or rills. No surprise really, considering that there is an estimated amount of 23,150 tons of plastic waste floating in the Mediterranean Sea. And this number only refers to the visible surface, no one knows how much has sunk to the sea floor. For tomorrow (Monday) morning we had planned to climb Monte Capanne, with 1019 meters the highest mountain of Elba, but it looks like the storm will upset our plans. Bugger, but not much one can do.